Thursday, June 25, 2009

In my new clothing adventure, I tried this tutorial for a peasant skirt. I used a sheet for practice and aside from needing to practice more gathers, i think it turned out pretty good. I wear it around the house and it's comfy, so I guess it's a success. Excuse the poor self portraits.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Okay, so I've been cloth diapering Abigail for about 2 months now. I am a part time cloth diapering mom, as I use disposables when we go out, but I am loving it. Okay, so I thought I'd write a post with some thoughts for anyone who might have questions. First off, I'm going to send you to Simple Mom's blog, because there was a great series of posts on cloth diapering with great FAQs and reviews, so check it out!

I sewed my own cloth diapers (or more accurately, my mom and I sewed them - thanks, Mom). I used this pattern and got fabric from here. We have been working off of 17 size small all in one diapers. In my opinion, these are as easy as disposables with the exception of doing an extra load of laundry every other day. I do find that Abby soaks through at night and so I use a diaper cover at night, though I might try a doubler in the future. As much as I love these diapers, I didn't want to sew more (I'm a creative sewer, not one of necessity). I did some research a found a WAHM business and ordered 20 one size pocket diapers. Much drama later (I won't go into it all here) I finally got them. My first impressions? I should've sewn my own. Not all home businesses are good or good quality. I also don't like the sagginess of the one size sized down to Abigail's size. Grrr! If I could do things over again (and maybe I will for our next baby) I would stick to sized all in one diapers. Now I have 20 diapers that I need to make work for the duration of Abigail's need of diapers. My beef with one size pocket diapers - they are saggy in the crotch area, the insert shifts and leaves her vulnerable to leaks - yuck! There are many good arguments for pocket diapers... less drying time, re-use the cover and just change the insert, less diapers mean less cost, but I just don't like them. I am hoping that I get used to them and don't forever regret this purchase.

I am still really happy with my diaper pail liner in my diaper genie. I just sewed a simple bag with an elastic opening that I slip over the old refill ring for the genie. It works great, though I am thinking of putting a zipper in the bottom for easy emptying.

Moral of the story: Cloth diapering is great, but you need to find the system that works best for you and not everyone else - ask lots of questions and maybe try something like the "test the best" program.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

I apologize to you, Claire! I received your beautiful buttercup bag while I was on a blog break and totally forgot to post about it when I came back. I entered Claire's giveaway and won! Have a look at her blog Make & Do and say "hi".

Monday, June 8, 2009

Here is my very first attempt at sewing clothing for myself. It could use some tweaking, but I am pretty impressed for my first try. It has inspired me to try some more, so we'll see if this is a new trend or not. I got the tutorial from the same lady who designed the buttercup bag.

Friday, June 5, 2009

My friend, Patty~Jean made a lovely baby blanket with vintage linens and it inspired me to create this. I didn't have any vintage linens, but I had some scraps, so here it is. I just started putting nine patch squares together without much thought to them, if I had been planning this from scratch I wouldn't have lined up the same colors in between or used orange in more than the centre square. This is just meant to be a light blanket for summer and not anything fancy, so I think it does the trick.

here's the back (I did a strip of squares because I had to piece together enough fabric for the whole back - a happy looking fix)

to answer some good questions: the dimensions are 32"x35" and it took me a couple of hours to make it.

Why are you angry, Mr Turtle?

We have a hand painted planter that was given to us as a wedding present. David and I dubbed it the angry turtle, because he does look angry. Yet, the funny thing is, his angry-ness makes me laugh. So, I thought I would share my laughter and joy with you here at The Angry Turtle.
Thanks for visiting and don't forget to say 'hello'.